Lady Bounty Easter Eggs

The Easter Egg & Bounty got busy!

Munch Munch

I love Cadbury Creme eggs, in Australia at Easter they’re an institution. As a kid I could eat a gazillion as an adult I can probably only eat 1 1/2. This year I thought I’d try my hand at making my own Easter Eggs in the style of Cremes. This will take a while, so strap yourself in and don’t make dinner plans just in case you need to try and try again.

This one was a challenge despite all my research and reference material. So many aspects actually went into making these somewhat egg like and yes they’re a tad ugly but they are tasty! Some issues to bear in mind that I came across. When I got my little egg moulds home I realised that both top and bottom had holes…which would mean leakage – so no chocolate egg mould that way. I then thought I’d create the bulk of the egg using the mold and then dip the egg at the end in chocolate to set. Unfortunately I couldn’t get the egg white coated yolk out of the mould without damaging the lot (even though I pre-greased with butter). So in the end I had to sculpt my eggs using my hands and a little lateral thinking – it’s surprisingly harder than it looks to create an egg shape and not a Babushka Doll or Coconut Nugget. Ultimately the best approach for crafting was similar to making Scotch Eggs.

Makes 9

The Yolk

125g White Chocolate broken up at room temperature

2 1/2 Tbs Butter in pieces at room temperature,

1 1/2 Tbs Whipping Cream

1 Tbs fresh Lemon Juice (about quarter a large lemon)

1/4 Tsp Pure Lemon Essence

1/8 Tsp Yellow Food Colouring

1/4 Cup Icing Sugar or Powdered Sugar

Baking Paper

Put a medium size bowl in the freezer.

Place your stove element on a medium heat and create a double boiler using whatever you have (generally a large saucepan and heat proof bowl will do the trick). In the bowl combine the chocolate, butter and cream, gently melt until you have a smooth consistency. Add the lemon juice and essence and remove from heat. Add the food colouring for a more richer yellow yolk. I added an eighth of a teaspoon and then added a little more drop by drop until I had the colour yellow I wanted. You be the judge on how yellow your yolk is or you can skip this step entirely.

Remove the bowl from the freezer and pour in your Yolk mix (this will help it set faster), place it back in the freezer for an hour and the in the fridge for another hour. Whilst this is setting it’s a great time to make the “Egg Whites”, but I’ll continue with the process on this one, so each element is in three whole pieces. The Yolk is set when you can use a teaspoon to scoop out some of the mix and you are able to roll a small ball in the palm of your hand. If it’s too soft pop the yolk back in until this is the case.

Pour some of the Icing Sugar onto a small side plate to dust your truffles. When you are ready to make your yolks scoop out enough and plop it onto the plate with sugar, pick it up and roll into a small ball. The sugar will help to create a more velvety consistency to roll the balls. Place onto some parchment paper and freeze until you’re ready to mold your eggs.

Using your double boiler set up from earlier, combine the Condensed Milk, Honey, Icing sugar and salt. Stir until well combined over the heat. Remove and place safely on bench.

Thoroughly mix in your coconut until well combined.

Spread out coconut mix over the parchment paper atop a large plate or baking tray.

Place in the freezer for approximately one hour until you can hold it in your hand and mold it. Note if it is too hard the pieces of coconut won’t gel and your eggs will look bumpy not smooth.

When set, remove from freezer along with the yolks. In the palm of your hand create a bed of coconut and gently begin to for the outline of an egg shape, curve up at the sides a little and place in your yolk. Using more coconut mix, cover your yolk and begin scultping you egg. Once you’re satified place in a small bowl or plate upright and pop in the freezer, continue this process until all of your coconut is used up. Freeze for approximately an hour.

The Egg

300g Dark chocolate at room temperature broken up

Toothpicks

Parchment Paper

Bananas or Styrofoam or potatoes, something to use as a stand to pop the eggs into for the chocolate to set.

Again with your double boiler, gently melt the chocolate. Place some parchment or baking paper on a plate or tray and top with your vege/fruit pieces to catch excess.

Place two to three toothpicks in the base of your egg (it’s heavy and needs it’s own little tripod) and cover it with chocolate either by dipping in the bowl or spooning over.

Stab your selected vegetable/fruit with the exposed ends of the toothpicks so the egg stays upright and can set. Repeat process with all of the eggs. Place in fridge for an hour until set and repeat the coating process once more.

Finally once the eggs are firmly set remove the toothpicks and cover the little holes with the remainder of the melted chocolate. Place back in Freezer until they’re set, then refrigerate in a plastic container until your ready to serve. I used a small bowl to support the eggs to keep them upright whilst the base was melted.

If you wish to serve them cut in half, run a knife under hot water to heat it so you will be able to cut through the chocolate more effectively.

Just so you know I am not a total genius. I amalgamated two recipes and used my own noggin for the flavours and used a third recipe for a general overview of assemblage. The blogs I borrowed from and changed up to suit this dessert areOh My God Chocolate Desserts, Christina Marsigliese(the most fun prose ever on a blog)andfinallyNot Without Salt.

Happy Easter and if you’re not celebrating and just want treat I hope you enjoy these!

Handy Hint: Before pulling the toothpicks from the Eggs I place paper towel around my fingers so not to transfer heat too quickly to the set chocolate.

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A can't remember a time when food hasn't been a part of my love of life. In fact part my very first memory is of my Nanna's Carambola tree in Darwin age 2-3.
Since then it was sharing an Avocado with Mum and squishing the leftovers of the skin onto our faces for a free mask in Cairns age 7.
Climbing Mango trees with my best friend Rachael in Mareeba aged 11.
Scoffing three plates of Spaghetti before school athletics carnivals ages 10-17.
Sucking the life out of tin of Sweet Condensed Milk as a little girl. To tell you the truth I still do this ;)
Savouring my first Ham and Mushroom Croissant in Paris near the Musee D'Orsay age 24.
Chomping down on my first Diddy Reis on my first trip to the USA age 25.
Discovering via accident that finely shaved Garlic atop soft Brie is the best cracker combination ever Age 26.
Eating everything off the street in Vietnam and consuming Pho for two weeks straight age 29.
Munching on Cheese and sipping Moet Chandon in the Yarra age 30.
Appreciating my first Veuve Cliquot after a show in Los Angeles age 31.
So what I am saying is so many big moments of my life are in someway connected to food. I may not remember the names of the all the people I met but I will more than likely remember the kinds of food I ate at the time and be able to describe them to you in more details than you want to hear.
So here on Munch Munch Munch is my love of food in all it's glory. A shame I didn't start documenting earlier.